Microservices
architecture backend distributed-systems advanced
What are Microservices?
Microservices are a way of building big computer programs by breaking them into many small, independent programs. Each small program (called a microservice) does one specific job, and they all work together to run your big program. This is different from the old way, where everything was in one big program.
Simple Analogy
Think of microservices like a restaurant kitchen:
- Old Way (Monolithic): One chef who does everything - cooking all dishes, washing dishes, serving customers. If this chef gets sick, the whole restaurant stops.
- Microservices Way: Many specialized workers:
- Pasta chef makes pasta
- Dessert chef makes desserts
- Dishwasher cleans dishes
- Servers take orders and serve food
Each person can work independently, and if one person is busy, it doesn’t stop the others from doing their jobs.
Key Concepts
- Independent: Each microservice can be built, tested, and run separately
- Specialized: Each microservice does one specific job really well
- Communication: Microservices talk to each other over the internet
- Scalability: You can make more copies of busy microservices when needed
- Resilience: If one microservice fails, the others keep working
- Technology Choice: Each microservice can use different programming languages and tools
